Celebrating 20 Years of Changing Fatherhood: Jerre Fields (Video)

Fatherhood Changes Everything… And We’ve Changed Fatherhood!

This is a special year for us at NFI. It marks our 20^th year of working to “change fatherhood” by ending father absence and connecting fathers to their children.

To celebrate the fathers and families whose lives we’ve turned around, we launched this series of videos, blog posts, photographs, and stories to highlight how our work has strengthened fatherhood since 1994.

At NFI, we know that Fatherhood Changes Everything.

From poverty, to crime, to school achievement, to child abuse – every issue we care about is affected by whether or not a child has an involved, responsible, and committed father. We know that when we connect a father to his child, heart to heart, lives change, communities change, and our entire nation is transformed.

This video reveals how NFI’s programs affect an individual life. This is one story out of many. But each video in this series was created from the book “Choosing Fatherhood: America’s Second Chance,” a photography book created by Lewis Kostiner. Lewis spent years going around the country, photographing dads who were going through NFI’s programs at community-based organizations in their neighborhoods. The result was a compelling photo book telling the stories of dads working hard to make their children’s lives better.

In this video, we spotlight Jerre Fields, who attended an NFI workshop in his community to learn how to be a better dad. Read his words or listen to them on the video, they are a powerful if you take time to listen.

Let Jerre's words serve as a great reminder that you, dad, serve the vital role your child needs, that every child needs.

 Can't view the video? Click here.

"My advice to other dads? Get involved with your family. Make sure that you're there with them every day, from the morning through the evening. Just try to keep up with the education. Education is the number-one thing when you're raising your kids, so that they can definitely have a better way of life once they leave the home. Just talking to your kids, playing games every day will help their social skills a lot better once they are able to get out there in the real world. Just all the love you can give them, hugs, just reading stories at night is one of the best things I can see now and maybe in my past." —Jerre Fields (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

How has fatherhood changed you? Tell us in the comments!